http://mmajunkie.comMACAU – In the UFC’s first-ever event in Macau, on a card filled with Asian vs. American matchups, Japanese veteran Riki Fukuda was the first to claim a victory.

In UFC on FUEL TV 6’s curtain-jerker, Fukuda overcame a lackluster first round and finished strong for a unanimous-decision victory over Tom DeBlass.

The middleweight bout kicked off Saturday’s UFC on FUEL TV 6 preliminary card at CotaiArena in Venetian Macau Resort Hotel. It streamed on Facebook prior to the FUEL TV-televised main card.

In the first round, Fukuda scored an early takedown and landed some solid ground and pound to the body. But when standing, the round clearly favored DeBlass, who was quicker to the punch while mixing in some powerful low and body kicks. Fukuda, though, scored another takedown late in the round, which made it a tossup.

The threat of those takedowns appeared to aid Fukuda in the second round. He was able to close the distance, lands knee and punches from the clinch, and he also became the more accurate striker once they separated. Although DeBlass landed some solid shots, Fukuda often had him backpedalling.

Fukuda carried the momentum into the third round. He easily closed distance, did damage from the clinch, and then scored a body-clinch takedown to set up a sustained attacked of ground and pound. DeBlass had no answer from his back and ate a steady stream of punches to the head and body. Despite a questionable standup from the ref, Fukuda closed out the round with a nice flurry of punches and kicks.

In the end, it led the Japanese vet to a unanimous-decision victory via 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28 scores.

Fukuda (19-6 MMA, 2-2 UFC) successfully rebounds from a recent decision loss to Constantinos Philippou. If not for a controversial decision loss to Nick Ring in his promotional debut, Fukuda would be 10-1 over his past 11 fights.

DeBlass (7-2 MMA, 0-2 UFC), a former light heavyweight making his middleweight debut, has now dropped two straight since his move to the UFC.

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